I go back and forth with all types of music, have to be in the mood for any sort of metal, same as anything else. As mentioned in another thread, I haven't really kept up with a lot of stuff after the 90s and mostly listen to old stuff when I want to hear anything heavy-metal related. As far as 2016 releases go, I've liked the latest albums from Temple Nightside, Agatus, and Darkthrone.
I don't know their catalog as a whole very well at all, but Cause of Death is classic 90s death metal IMHO.
I like some grind, but I'm very, very picky about it. My favorite grind release is probably Napalm Death's Peel Sessions. I think it's hard to top the early Earache classics for grind (as well as stuff like old Assuck and Phobia) and it's tough for me to get into a lot of later grind bands. The worst are the groups that overdo the use of pitchshifted vocals or use the "cupped mike" technique. I also don't have much use for "noisecore" grind bands that put out a truckload of tapes and split 7''s that all sound like they were recorded by a tape recorder that accidentally got switched on when someone threw it in a nearby trash can.
Same for me. I always liked traditional metal but death metal has been a total revelation for me in my 40's. I'm 42 now.
I listened to a lot of different "metal" stuff in the late 90s / early 2000s (high school and early college for me) and I actually still enjoy a healthy dose of it from time to time. Lots of the bands that came around then were influenced by the At The Gates / In Flames sounds mixed with a little bit of everything else. Not certain the bands and albums I am about to list are black / death / doom, but I still dig the following: Shadows Fall "The Art Of Balance" The Black Dahlia Murder "Unhallowed" (and maybe "Miasma" too...) At The Gates "Slaughter of the Soul" In Flames Children of Bodom (many of their albums... maybe they are "Classical Metal"? haha) I saw a lot of these bands in concert in early 2000s among MANY others - Cephalic Carnage, Amon Amarth, Between the Buried and Me, Trivium, the list goes on and on... (again, not all black / death / doom) but provided me with music during my formative years!
Gotta give my bandmate's other band a shout out here....The Skull featuring original members of Trouble:
I try and try to get into In Flames but I just don't like their vocalist. I love CoB - their albums are short and concise but I'm never bored. It feels like they are getting more polished too. Really like the last couple of records from them.
One of my favorites is Impaled. Mondo Medicale is a favorite of mine. In the early 2000s I was really big into many of the Carcass clones. Impaled General Surgery Exhumed $&@?... I'm Dead Hemorrhage Regurgitate
I haven't heard any of their stuff since "are you dead yet?" truthfully... I really dig "hatebreeder" and "follow the reaper", "hate crew deathroll" was the one that got me into them!
I like Exhumed, especially: I also like this Regurgitate release, which is more like Nasum than Carcass:
I really like: Incantation Blood Freak Cianide Craft Glorior Belli Bones ...... but haven't kept up with most of them for yeas. The only new metal I've bought this year is the new Nails: It's a freaking beast of an album. I see that Trap Them has released a new one, but I haven't picked it up.
Criticized for what? For not sounding like some other band? I think they're tremendously talented and really enjoy seeing them perform things like "Live at Music Feeds Studio". Oops, sorry. I searched but didn't catch that. My mistake. Everything I saw was either defunct or of an unworthy title. Dark Tranquillity's "Damage Done" was in steady rotation in 2002. Loved that album. Opeth's Blackwater Park, which I bought in store entirely due to being intrigued by the cover, was my intro to the dark genres. That was my revelation and I was absolutely floored! I listened to nothing but Opeth for nine months. Remembering that I also just remembered the big NorthEast blackout of 2003 from New York to Quebec. About the fourth day without power, out of sheer boredom I started drinking on the balcony with Opeth on a MP3 player with earbuds. I know eventually I began roaring progressively louder at the night sky. Poor neighbours, a blood thirsty monster in their midst. Man, Cause of Death (the song) is good! Just checked it out. Okay, I'll get off the "Xecutioner's Return" ride. I'm so entranced by Obituary's lead guitar work which would be at home on many a hard rock album from the 70s. I'm loving these guys.